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VP wanted me to send you the transcript from today's speech. He knocked it out of the park!

John

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From: "McCormick, Mike" <Michael_J_McCormick@who.eop.gov<mailto:Michael_J_McCormick@who.eop.gov>>
Date: February 27, 2016 at 6:49:04 PM PST
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Subject: Remarks by the Vice President at the California State Democratic Party Convention

THE WHITE HOUSE

Office of the Vice President
_________________________________________________________________
For Immediate Release February 27, 2016


REMARKS BY VICE PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN
AT THE CALIFORNIA STATE DEMOCRATIC PARTY CONVENTION

San Jose Convention Center
San Jose, California

4:11 P.M. PST

THE VICE PRESIDENT: Hey, folks. How are you? (Applause.) Well, thank you. Thank you, thank you, thank you. It’s great to be back in California. (Applause.) I was telling the chairman he made me feel right at home as if I were back in my home state of Delaware. And he said, oh, shut up. (Laughter.) I tell you, usually they're hollering that at me. But any rate, thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you all so very much. What an extraordinary place and extraordinary leaders. I mean it sincerely, over the years I’ve gathered a lot of great personal friends here. And if you excuse -- we used to say in the Senate -- a point of personal privilege. So many of you were friends of my late son Beau Biden, so many worked with him when he was attorney general. A lot of great friends of us -- Eric and Kamala, Alex. So many more of you. And again, I’ll only say this once, but -- that's all right. Let him go. Let him go. That's okay. It’s all right. It’s okay. It’s okay. My son Beau would love that part. (Laughter.) No, really. Thank you. It’s not a problem. I got it.

Hey, let’s not act like Republicans. (Applause.) I ain’t Donald Trump. I don't have that much hair. (Laughter.)

But any rate, I should have started off by saying my name is Joe Biden, I’ve been working for Governor Jerry Brown for 40 years. (Laughter.) What an amazing guy. I don't know whether the Gov is here. But I tell you what, I met Jerry first back in 1974. And I campaigned with him when he was running for governor in 2010. Go figure. (Laughter.) Gov, my grandchildren are looking forward to voting for you in 2030. (Laughter.)

By the way, of all the elected officials in the country in the past 40 years, no one has been able to look around the curb and corner better and more perceptively than Jerry Brown. And that's a fact. (Applause.)

And I don't know whether my buddy -- and she is my buddy -- Nancy Pelosi is here. (Applause.) Nancy -- I’ve been doing this a long time, Nancy is the single-most effective Democratic leader in -- Nancy, how are you, kiddo? Great to see you. And the whole family. (Applause.)

By the way, there’s not a single important thing that Barack and I have done that would have been able to be done without Nancy’s leadership. We owe you, Nancy. (Applause.)

And Alex Padilla. I got to see Alex and his wife and two beautiful children backstage a little earlier. I came and campaigned up and down the state for Alex in ’14. He was winning by 40 percent before I came, and he still won in spite of it. (Laughter.) So I appreciate you letting me hang out with you, Alex. And one thing I love about Alex, he understands there’s nothing more basic than the right to vote and access to the polling place. (Applause.)

And Barbara Boxer -- I don't know whether Barbara is here. But, Barbara, the Senate is going to miss you. The country is going to miss you. I’m going to miss you, and California is going to miss you. We’ve worked together on everything from trying to save the dolphins to Violence Against Women, to ending the war in Iraq. You've been a great partner, Barbara. And thanks for everything. (Applause.)

And there’s a special place in my heart, and I mean this sincerely, for Dianne Feinstein. There are few people in Washington who command more respect. Dianne is and remains a force to be reckoned with. When it comes to America’s safety and security, whether it’s taking on gun violence, or promoting national security in the United States, there’s nobody who the Senate listens more closely to than Dianne. And she’s someone who I not only respect, but I hope she doesn't mind my saying, someone I’ve come to truly love. And I appreciate everything she’s done for me. (Applause.)

And all the other elected Democratic officials. You have more elected Democratic elected officials than I have people in the state of Delaware. And we're grateful for it. (Laughter.)

Look, I’ve been around long enough to know my dad was right when he said half the battle is showing up. And thank you always for showing up.

Let me start by giving our Republican friends -- not so much Republican Party friends and candidates a tip. You can't lead this great country without recognizing what made it great in the first place. (Applause.) And more importantly, you can't lead America unless you believe in the American people and their capacity to do virtually anything they set their mind to. I mean that sincerely. (Applause.)

America has led the world and continues to lead the world because not just the example of our power, but the power of our example. What these guys don't get is we are valued around the world, looked up to in the world because of our values. Not just our physical power. People know we mean it when we say e pluribus unum. Out of many, one. We cannot define America based on race, ethnicity, religious faith, country of origin. The only way you can define America is by the principles we all believe in. (Applause.) I mean that. We do believe all men and women are created equal. We do believe they're entitled to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. That includes Christians, Jews, Muslims, people of no faith at all. (Applause.) It includes straight, gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender American. It means all America. That's who we are. That's what we believe. That's what has made us great. (Applause.)

And there’s a very simple proposition -- and I mean this sincerely -- we Democrats know that our country works best when it works for everyone. But if you listen to the Republican candidates for President, and you look at the Republicans in Congress and their budget, they have a collective case of amnesia. They continue to double down on the politics that caused the Great Recession, the greatest recession short of a depression in American history. It’s like they don't remember what they did. No, I really mean it. Listen to them.

We lost 9 million jobs during the Great Recession; 5 million foreclosures; teachers, firefighters, law enforcement laid off because of massive state deficits. An auto industry that was about to implode. A stock market headed below 6,000. We inherited a federal debt the day we raised our right hand of $1.4 trillion, over $16 trillion in wealth for Americans was wiped out.

Well, they may have forgotten. But I haven’t forgotten. I remember. (Applause.) I remember. Oh, I remember well the mess the President and I inherited the moment we took our hands off the Bible on that cold January day. As a matter of fact, I’ll tell you a little vignette. The President and I for the first time after being sworn in, we went back to the White House. And the first time the both of us walked into the Oval Office, just the two of us, and he sat down behind the desk. And I remember looking at him, he kids me about it. I said, Mr. President, we bought in too early. (Laughter.) And he looked at me, and said, like, what in the hell do you mean, Joe?

And I said think how much better off -- and I mean this sincerely -- had the election -- the President been sworn in on March the 20th like he used to, then there would have been no doubt, no question, no misunderstanding of who brought us to where we were.

Although we ran in 2009 to lift up America, it was clear that our first job was to save America. That was the first job we had. (Applause.)

So we went to work doing what had to be done. And it wasn’t popular -- even among some Democrats. The Recovery Act, the automobile rescue, the Affordable Care Act -- or what I prefer to call Obamacare. (Applause.) Wall Street Reform. Rescuing the housing sector. Pulling people back into their homes. At every single stage, virtually not a single Republican voted to help us. And what did they offer in place of what we were suggesting? More of the same that got us in trouble in the first place.

Remember the 2008 campaign and again in ’12, more tax cuts for millionaires. Tax increases for the middle class. Cuts in education. Cuts in Medicare. Cuts in medical and science research. Voucherizing Medicare. End it as we know it. And famously saying let Detroit, meaning the auto industry, go bankrupt. Look at what their positions were, what they ran on.

Think about what they're elected officials are saying. All you got to do is go back to George Bush in 2000, 2004, McCain in 2008, Romney 2012 -- it’s the same tired prescription. They haven’t changed at all, folks. They’ve just gotten meaner. (Laughter and applause.)

Nancy can -- and I hope someday will -- write a book on the Republican budget, the Ryan budget. I happen to like and Nancy does to Paul Ryan. He’s a decent guy. But look at his budget. I joke with him he’s read too much Ayn Rand. (Laughter.) But look at the budget, it’s essentially -- not a joke, folks. We're always playing defense it seems. The budget is essentially the platform George W. Bush ran on. Not a joke. Just imagine had they won. Just imagine -- does anyone believe we would have created 14 million private sector jobs with 71 straight months of job creation. Does anybody believe we would have cut the unemployment from 10 percent to less than 5 percent? The biggest and fastest decline in our budget deficit history. The slowest growth in health care cost in generations. Foreclosures at their lowest level. Does anybody believe that we’d be in the midst of clean energy revolution. Since 2009, solar jobs have grown more than 88 percent -- 174,000. That's more jobs than Apple, Google, and Twitter combined. (Applause.)

And by the end of this year, that will grow to 210,000 jobs. Good, decent, middle-class jobs. Let me define what I mean by middle class. Middle class means that you can own your home and not rent it. Middle class means you can send your kid to a park in the neighborhood, and know they’ll come home safely. Middle class means that you can send your kid to a local high school, and if they do well, they can get to college. If they get to college, you can get them there. And in the meantime, you can take care of your mother or father when the other dies and hope your children never have to take care of you. That's middle class. That's who we are. (Applause.) These are good jobs.

The solar revolution -- we're powering 4.6 million homes. Wind power has tripled to 50,000 jobs -- supply wind power more than 16 million homes that could support over 600,000 jobs over the next several decades.

Look, and for the first time the cost per BTU of coal is no cheaper essentially than wind and/or solar. (Applause.) This is a big deal. And if you listen to the Republicans prescriptions then and now, does anybody believe that in 2015, we would have sold 17 million American automobiles. (Applause.)

Folks, we preserve the full faith and credit of the United States while the Republican leadership was telling Nancy and me, as we were negotiating these cliffs, you don't understand, Nancy. You don't understand, Joe. We’ve got seven or eight crazies in the Senate, 35 in the House. (Laughter.) Am I joking, Nancy? (Laughter.) This is what the leaders were telling us. You don't understand, Joe, they think we have to show the moral imperative of letting the country go bankrupt, not pay our debt. That's what they were saying.

The ultimate gold standards, and not in a literal sense, the standard -- the most valuable standards the American people have in their economy is America has never, never, never, never ever defaulted our debt. But there were elements in their parts who were trying to get us to default. They called it the moral hazard.

I sometimes wonder where did they come from. And oh, by the way, while Nancy, and Barack, and I were doing all these things, we cut the federal deficit by two-thirds. (Applause.)

Look at this young kid in front of me here -- by the way, your parents owe you big for being here -- but they're not going to hear the word outsourcing. We don't even hear it now. They're hearing the word insourcing. People are coming home. Not leaving.

Look, don't take my word for it. A.T. Kearney, one of the largest management outfits in the world, they do a survey every single year for the last I think 19. Don't hold me to the exact number. And they asked the 300 largest industrialists in the world the following question. Where is the best place in the world to invest? By a margin larger than any time in the history of that survey, they say the United States of America. (Applause.)

So much for our not being respected. There are plenty of reasons these companies are coming home. Number one, North America for the remainder of this century will be the epicenter of energy in the world. Not Saudi Arabia, not the Saudi peninsula, not Venezuela, not Nigeria. The United States of America. The cost of natural gas to run a company in the United States is seven times cheaper than it is in Asia and three to four times than it is in Europe.

We have the finest and the only country that has throughout the country -- the finest research universities in the world to support this. (Applause.) Right here in California. And although it may not be politically correct, the truth is we have the most agile venture capitalists in the world. We have a rule of law that fairly adjudicates contracts. It protects intellectual property and we have the most productive workers in the world. American workers are three times as productive as they are in China. That's why people are coming home -- because of all this, because of the grit and determination and resilience of the American people. We’ve gone from an economic crisis to recovery, and now we're on the cusp of genuine resurgence.

But we’ve got so much more work to do to meet the goal that Barack and I boldly stated when we ran in ’08, and that was to restore the vitality and vigor of the middle class.

We said it was the defining issue of our time, and it still is. And now that we’ve taken the ship of state from off the bottom of the ocean, have it repaired, and it’s now floating, now we can set sail. We have the opportunity, the capacity and the obligation to now finish that job and generate a genuine resurgence for the middle class here in America.

But let me tell you something it requires us -- and I know you read in the press, this is my implicit criticism of the Democratic candidates. I think we have two great candidates. And by the way, congratulations to Hillary on a great victory today in South Carolina. (Applause.)

I’m proud of both of them. But look, we have to remind ourselves why we're Democrats in the first place. We're Democrats because -- and I mean this sincerely now, cut everything else aside -- because we basically have faith in the possibilities that ordinary people, if given a chance, they have never, ever, ever, ever let their country down. And ordinary people can do -- like our parents did -- extraordinary things.

I’ve had a lot of political leaders I’ve admired a great deal. But I’ve only had one political hero in my life, and that was Robert Kennedy. (Applause.) But I say that to remind you I think he best captured what defined our party for the last 200 years. And in his famous quote, there are those who look at things the way they are and ask why. I dream things that never were and ask why not. That's who we are as Democrats. (Applause.) That's what it means to be a Democrat, to understand the immense, immense possibilities that exist.

So it’s time for us to start to ask why not. Why can't we meet the goal of 100 percent renewable energy by 2050? Why not be able to create a million more American affordable -- give them affordable health care? Why not position the American middle class to once again be the most prosperous, growing middle class in the world.

Look, in order to do that we have to take the next steps. And what Barack and I in our last two budgets are pushing -- and Nancy is trying like hell to get moving -- we have to remove the remaining impediments that the Republican Party has put in our path beginning 30 years, the same impediments that led to the cause of the Great Recession.

Today, the first thing we have to do is begin to change the corporate culture in America. (Applause.) Let me explain what I mean by that. Corporations are neither inherently bad or inherently good. But the corporate culture has changed. I come from the corporate state of America, Delaware. The corporate culture has changed around America, the following way: It now focuses almost extremely on short-termism; exceedingly narrow view of what their responsibility is.

Today you hear intelligence people say that the only fiduciary responsibility corporations have is to their shareholders. Nancy knows I have in my office a cartoon from The New Yorker. There’s a picture. My staff keeps hiding it behind other pictures. I have it framed. I put it on the mantel. There’s a picture of a big, rotund guy with a black mask on, a black beret, and he’s sitting at a table being interrogated by the police. And there’s a great big bag on the table with a dollar sign on it. And he’s looking at the law enforcement office, he said, how was I to know it was that of a job creator? (Laughter.)

Since when are the only people who create jobs those people who invest in a corporation? My father was an automobile manager for years. He created jobs by selling automobiles. The guy on the assembly line created jobs by making the automobile. (Applause.) What happened in America? Since when -- I mean this sincerely -- since when is the only corporate responsibility to shareholders?

Since when it is appropriate for corporate America to no longer have responsibility to their employees, no responsibility to their community, no responsibility to their country? Since when is that the standard? That wasn’t the standard that existed in the past.

There’s a professor named Lazonick at the University of Massachusetts who published a study in the Harvard Business Review last year. He looked at the 449 Fortune 500 companies who had been on the Fortune 500 list from 2003 to 213. And here’s what he found. They made -- those companies -- $2.4 trillion in profit. That's a good thing. But here’s the difference than 30 years ago. They invested 54 percent of that profit in buying back their own stock, increasing the value of compensation for the CEOs who are mostly paid in stock. They spent 37 percent paying out dividends to shareholders, leaving -- now this is an important point -- leaving 9 percent for everything, for wages, for retraining employees, for research and development, for cash reserves. What happened? How did that happen?

When Ronald Reagan was President executive compensation averaged 22 times that of the average employee of the corporation. Today, it’s 303 times the average worker. What happened? How can that possibly be justified? The concentration of wealth -- not since the early ‘20s, 1 percent of the population, and they're patriotic -- they're good people. But 1 percent of them make 22.5 percent of all the income in America.

Not only is that unfair, not only does it undermine the sense of equality and equity, but it also fundamentally damages growth. Don't take my word for it because I’m a progressive Democrat. Look at the study done by Standard & Poor’s, the International Monetary Fund. They say the greatest threat to growth -- overall growth -- is the concentration of wealth. One of the greatest threats is the concentration of wealth. It’s about economic growth.

Folks, it’s within our power to rebalance the inequities and do so much more. As I said earlier, we know the economy only works when it works for everyone. We know that we’ve always done best when the rich -- and the rich have done extremely well, and the poor -- when the middle class does well. When the rich, the poor, the middle class, labor, business understands and acts as one America. I mean this sincerely. (Applause.) When we recognize mutual obligations and mutual responsibilities.

And, folks, I’m not just delivering this speech to a group of Democrats. I’ve gone to Wall Street and delivered this speech. I recently was the keynote speaker at the World Economic Forum with over 2,400 CEOs. And I laid it out. I told them you have responsibilities. You have responsibilities at your own home. You have responsibility to bring your profits home and invest them here. You have a responsibility to more than just your stockholders. (Applause.)

Folks, it’s a simple proposition. There used to be a bipartisan -- for over 50 years a bipartisan basic bargain we all agreed to. We disagreed in degree but not in substance, and that basic bargain said if you contributed to the profitability, the enterprise with which you worked, you got to share in the benefits. (Applause.)

For the first time in modern history, that is not happening any longer. It’s time to share the benefits with workers in the community and the country. And don't even get me started on so-called inversions. We’ll be here all night. (Applause.)

Look, let me finish, and I’ll jam you with some other stuff. (Applause.) Look, I know I’m always talking about the middle class, and I’ve been talking about it my whole career. But there’s a simple reason for it well beyond equity. Think about it, folks, the distinguishing feature of the United States and our economy relative to every other Western economy has been the middle class has been the thing that's enabled us to hold together the political and social consensus in America. As long as average Americans believed that it was possible if they worked hard that they could get ahead, as long as that was the case, they were prepared to take on whatever confronted them.

But today, ladies and gentlemen, for the first time in modern history fewer than 50 percent of the American people fall into the middle class. I never thought I would stand before an audience in my lifetime and say that. The middle class has gotten clobbered. And now we're in a position after having righted the ship, now we're in a position to get them back in the saddle. And let’s start by making the tax code more equitable and productive. (Applause.)

And the best way to do that -- that's the best way to benefit the middle class is make it fair. It may sound unusually self-serving, but I was able to get, as Nancy will recall, the Republicans for the first time in 20 years to vote to increase taxes on the top 2 percent of the wealthiest people in America. Now why did I say that? It just brought back the top bracket to what they paid in the Clinton tax era rates. But here’s what it did. It generated $660 billion that helped working-class folks put food on the table, stay out of poverty, helped families send their kids to college, led to significant investment in alternative energy.

But we were told at the time we couldn’t afford any of those things. We keep getting told by the Republicans what we can't afford. Well, let me tell you -- I can tell you what we can't afford. We can't continue to afford a tax structure so riddle with multi-billion loopholes that it’s eating up everything else we should be doing. (Applause.)

Folks, when Ronald Reagan was President there were $600 billion worth of so-called tax expenditures in the tax code, meaning that $600 billion that would have been collected, but not collected because it was thought to be a greater social good -- whether it was interest on homeowner’s mortgages or whatever it was. Well, today that has increased from $600 billion to $1.2 trillion in a year of taxes that otherwise would have been collected being given out, a so-called loophole.

Folks, find me a single credible economist, including conservative economists, that can give you an explanation for more than $600 billion of those exemptions have any social redeeming value or increasing productivity at all.

That's why the President and I have proposed eliminating expenditures that have no overall social value any longer and invest in things that create pathways to the middle class -- education, job training, renewable energy, infrastructure, childcare, sick leave. (Applause.)

You all know this, but I want to quickly -- because we don't explain enough in my view exactly how we do it -- we hear not just from the Republican candidates, we hear from ordinary Americans, we can't afford it. Look, we can afford it all and still reduce the deficit.

Let me give you an example, just one. Free community college the President and I have been proposing. Forget the merits for just a minute. They say we can't afford it. I think we should have four years of public community college, but that's a different thing. (Applause.) But let’s just take the proposal before the American -- I can hardly wait to engage my Republican friends in this debate. It gets down to a value judgment, okay? Free community college -- if it were free, it’s estimate that 9 million people would be in community college, and it would cost $6 billion a year. That's a lot money. They say we can't afford it.

But here’s how we do it. We make a value judgment. We eliminate just one of the tax loopholes out there. It’s called stepped-up basis. What it means is that if I go and buy stock for million dollars -- God love me, I wish I could. (Laughter.) For a million dollars. I still have the dubious distinction when I filed my financial disclosure, as Nancy will tell you, The Washington Post said, “It’s probable no Vice President ever assumed the office with fewer assets than Joe Biden.” (Laughter.) I assume they were talking financial assets. I don't know. (Laughter.)

But look -- but here’s the deal, right now if somebody goes out and buys a million dollars of stock and sells it for $2 million, they pay capital gains on a million dollars. But if I guy a million dollars’ worth of stock, and I pass away and I leave it to my children, and they sell it for $3 million -- but it’s worth $2 million when I die, they only pay a capital gains between $2 million and $3 million. We lose that capital gains that would have been paid had I lived and sold it.

You know how much that -- and by the way, that affects .2 of the population. Good people, so-called trust fund babies, who are already very, very wealthy, okay?

Now here’s the value judgment. To put 9 million people in community college for free -- and by the way 12 years is no longer enough for a free education -- but to put them in school, it costs $6 billion a year. You know how much that tax expenditure on stepped-up basis costs the Treasury every year? $17 billion. You eliminate that one thing, you generate another $17 billion in income. We can pay for all the community college and reduce the deficit by another $11 billion. What is best in the interest of the country? Reward people who are already doing incredibly well to not have to pay something they’d otherwise have to pay? Or to increase the productivity and opportunity for millions of Americans? (Applause.)

Eliminating that tax break has no impact on their standard of living, no indication it would affect in any way the investments they make. But it would provide peace of mind for students and the parents of 9 million individuals. Tell me which is better for the country.

Ladies and gentlemen, we're in a situation where we're proposing tripling -- with Nancy -- tripling the maximum childcare tax credit. (Applause.) Forty percent -- this is the only other example I’ll give -- 40 percent of mothers are the breadwinners in their families. And over the last 15 years, women in the workplace -- the number going into the workplace have slowed. Totally qualified but they’ve slowed. And we need replacement workers. They slowed because of the rising cost of childcare. Too many women are dropping out of the workforce because of the rising cost of childcare.

In California it costs between $9,000 to $12,000 a year -- in some places even more -- for childcare. We call for tripling the maximum childcare tax credit as I like to do. That would increase the number of women in the workforce. Studies show that would increase our productivity. It would add another $1.5 trillion to our economy. And our GDP would increase 9 percent over the next 10 years. It would pay back exponentially greater than it costs. But it costs $80 billion over 10 years -- $8 billion a year. And our friends say we can't afford it. We just can't afford it. We can't afford all of this they say.

But let me give you just one example and it’s an illustration, and I’ll get off this. If we were to limit deductions in the tax code to a maximum of 28 percent -- which would cover every middle and upper-middle income person out there, it would cause no pain for those who are paying the 30 percent rate not to be able to deduct at 39 percent. It would not impact on their willingness to give the charitable deduction. It would punish no one. But over 10 years, it would bring in to the United States Treasury another $603 billion. Tell me what we can't afford. Tell me we can't afford to grow the middle class. Tell me we can't afford to increase education. Tell me we can't afford to take the burden off hardworking mothers and fathers. Tell me that that's what we can't do. (Applause.) We can afford that and so much and still cut the deficit. (Applause.) Investing in education, energy, childcare, sick leave, making the economy more equitable. Folks, it doesn't stop there. We need to restore the bargaining power of labor unions. (Applause.) Labor built the middle class.

I said 15 years ago and I got criticized for it at a national labor convention, I said, the Chamber of Commerce has declared war on labor’s house. Does anybody doubt war has been declared on labor over the last decade?

AUDIENCE: No!

THE VICE PRESIDENT: And why do you think middle-class people have lost their bargaining power? Ladies and gentlemen, we got to deal unions back into the deal. That means protecting the right to collective bargaining. It means making sure that workers are paid fair wages. It means not allowing corporations to reclassify workers to deprive them overtime. It means providing sick leave for over 300,000 workers which we’ve done on federal contracts, but do it for all American workers. (Applause.)

And no one knows it better than California and New York. No one should work 40 hours a week and still live in poverty in America. (Applause.) It’s wrong. It’s counterproductive. It diminishes our power to grow the economy.

That's why I believe we should increase the minimum wage over the near term to $15 an hour. (Applause.) The point is -- look, folks, the point is there’s so much we can do that speaks to fairness and growth.

You know the expression, do good and do well. But here we have an opportunity to do right and to grow the American economy at the same time.

Look, folks, don't forget Republicans haven’t changed their stripes. The budget in the House calls for increased -- further tax cuts for millionaires. They're still for eliminating -- they still believe that the benefits, the way this works is trickle-down. They believe it. They haven’t changed a bit. And now we're just getting back to basics, man.

We're on the cusp of America owning the 21st century. I mean that sincerely. I got elected when I was 29 years old to the United States Senate. I was viewed -- I was characterized always as the idealistic young guy, the optimist. If you read in the paper they still call me the White House Optimist, as if I’m the guy who just fell off the turnip truck yesterday. (Laughter.)

But, folks, there’s so much more we can do. We got good candidates. (Applause.) There’s so much more we can do. So I say to Democrats and Republicans and independents alike don't sell this country short, folks.

Look, folks, there’s one thing I know if anything else, it’s this, if you give the American people -- and I mean this from the bottom of my heart. I know it from my own family. If you give the American people just a fighting chance -- just a fighting chance, they have never, ever, ever, ever, ever let their country down. (Applause.)

And by the way, I travel the world a lot. I do an awful lot of foreign policy, and the advantage I have is when I go, the leaders I meet with know I speak for the President. We don't have to check anything. Not a joke. Not a joke. I’ve traveled over 1.1 million miles so far just since being Vice President.

And, ladies and gentlemen, you know what amazes the rest of the world about us -- they don't use my term, but I’m going to use the term that I know they believe. There is no quit in America. There is no quit in America or the American people. (Applause.)

Which means -- to conclude, which means our people aren’t the problem. Our politics is the problem. (Applause.)

It’s grown so petty, so personal, so angry, so ugly. And it’s far too influenced by big money and PACS and all this in American politics. (Applause.)

If you wanted to do one thing to right the ship of state here completely is pass what I introduced in 1974, a constitutional amendment to publicly fund all elections. (Applause.) It would end the influence, the disproportionate influence.

Look, the preamble of our Constitution says: We the people, not we the donors. It says, we the people. (Applause.)

And, folks, what I’m about to say -- I’m sure some of you will not agree with me. Instead of debating our opponents, we demonize them. Instead of questioning judgments, we question motives. Instead of listening we shout. Instead of looking for solutions, we look to score political points. We can't let this go one because our politics is pulling this country apart. Our politics is trafficking in division.

We all see with Trump and the Republicans, with their talk about building walls and banning Muslims. But if we're honest with ourselves, we’ve slipped into the blame game too.

Look, most important lesson I learned was when I was a young senator in 1973. When I got elected -- and I don't say this for empathy or sympathy, it’s just a fact -- when I got elected on November the 7th, December 18th, my wife -- while I was in Washington -- my wife and daughter were killed, a tractor trailer broadsided them and killed my wife and daughter. And my two sons were very badly injured. And I wasn’t going to go to Washington.

But because of great men like Hubert Humphrey and believe it or not Fritz Hollings and guy you don't even know named Pastore, a senior senator from Rhode Island, and Mike Mansfield and a few others, they came to Delaware to convince me because we had talked to my governor about appointing someone in my place. And they came and they said, Joe, just come and stay six months. We need you. I was so stupid, Nancy, I didn't realize we had 58 Democratic senators. They didn't need me at all. (Laughter.) And they were going to get -- I really mean it. By the way, I’m the first senator I ever knew so I didn't know any better. (Laughter and applause.)

But true story, so once a week, Nancy, literally Senator Mansfield would have me come to his office at three o’clock on Tuesday, and he would give me an assignment. I really thought every freshman got an assignment. (Laughter.) No, I did. I swear to God. And I’ll never forget. I was walking on the floor and I used to always walk through those double doors you see on C-SPAN, walk down to the well of the Senate, and look at the President of the Senate and ask, when is the last vote? Because I commuted every day for 36 years to go home with my kids at the time.

And so I went in on my way to Senator Mansfield’s office at three o’clock to check when the last vote would be. And Jesse Helms was -- you don't remember him, but he was -- well, maybe you do. And Jesse Helms was on the floor of the Senate excoriating Ted Kennedy and Bob Dole for the precursor to the Americans with Disabilities Act. And I was outraged by it. But because I had my meeting with the Leader, I just kept walking in. And I sat down in front of him. And I later learned all he was doing was taking my pulse to see how I was doing, God love him. But it was a wonderful thing to do for me.

And I sat there, and I guess I looked angry. And he sat behind the desk all the time, and he had a corncob pipe; 90 percent of the time it wasn’t lighted. And he took it out of his mouth, and he said, Joe, what’s the matter? He spoke in clipped tones. He said, what’s the matter, Joe?

And I went on and ripped into Jesse Helms. I said, he has not social redeeming value. I went on and on. I was so angry. He doesn't care about the handicapped. Mansfield let me go on. And he looked at me, Nancy, my word as a Biden. He said, Joe, what would you say if I told you that in December of 1970 -- it may have been ’71, 1970, Jesse and Dot Helms were sitting in their living room reading the Raleigh Observer, and there was an advertisement in the paper from an orphanage of a young man in braces up to his hips, two canes, saying, all I want for Christmas is someone to love me and take me home.

He said, Joe, what would you say if I told Jesse and Dot Helms went down and adopted that young boy?

I said, I’d feel like a jerk. He said, well, Joe, they did. And then he went on to say something that was the most important lesson I ever learned in the Senate. He said, Joe, it’s always appropriate to question another man or woman’s judgment. It’s never appropriate to judge their motive because you don't know what it is. And today, 80 percent of what we do is we question motive. Not judgment.

When I question your motive, and I say it’s because you're in the pocket of this or you don't have this value or that, it’s awful hard ever to get to a consensus. But I can go after your position till hell won’t have it. And we can still on the merits -- we can end up compromising.

Folks, America can't take this much longer. We can only survive by consensus. We're the most heterogeneous democracy in the history of the world. I understand why so many in America and our party talk about two Americas. But the way I see it, we're one America. We’ve always done best as a nation when we act as one America. And you see when we talk about one America, I mean that everyone has an equal chance -- gay, straight, black, white, Hispanic, men, women, children, immigrants, Native Americans. Everybody gets a fair shot.

It means we look at our opposition not as an enemy, but as the opposition. It means consensus is necessary. Compromise is not a dirty word. It means we're all bound together in this great experiment of equality, and opportunity, and democracy. And everyone -- and I mean everyone -- is in on the deal.

My dad used to have an expression. Joe, everyone is entitled to be treated with dignity. Everyone. (Applause.)

It may be a simple notion, but it’s not new. It doesn't make it any less important because it’s not new. Everyone knows we have to figure out how to come together.

So, folks, let me end with this, when world leaders -- as Nancy knows I have probably the most extensive relationship with President Xi of anyone just because when he was Vice President, the two Presidents decided we should get to know each other. I traveled 15,000-18,000 miles with him in China, three days with him here. I’ve had according to the State Department over 24-25 hours of private dinners, just he and I.

And we were in Chengdu, China, and he turned to me, and he said, can you define America for me? I said, yes, Mr. President -- he was then Vice President. It was two months before he became President. I said, I can define it in one word: possibilities. Literally possibilities. (Applause.)

As Americans, I believe we're built whether we are naturalized or native born -- we're built to dream big, to see no limits. That's who we are. That's who we’ve been. That's been stamped into our DNA. And yes, I believe it means something as big as ending cancer in our time. (Applause.)

It also means we got to change the tone so every child in this country gets to dream big, too. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again -- poor kids, middle-class kids, they have the same hopes, the same aspirations, the same dreams as everyone else.

In this country where a black child raised by a single white mom can become President of the United States, and a white kid from Scranton can become Vice President of the United States. I never felt for one moment growing up in I guess technically lower middle-class household, I never felt for one moment there was anything I couldn’t do. Not a single thing. And Barack felt the same way.

Our job if you cut it to the quick in my view, our obligations as Democrats, as Americans is to make sure that every kid in this country growing up today thinks that's true; that parents can do what my dad did. We lived in Scranton. I moved to Wilmington when I was going into fourth grade. I remember my dad walking into my grandpop’s home and my mom’s four brothers and saying -- a proud man, saying, Ambrose, can you keep Jean and the kids for a year? I’m moving down to Delaware, Wilmington, where there are jobs. There are no jobs here in Scranton in ’54. But I promise I’ll come back and I’ll make it up to you.

And I remember the longest walk any parent has to make is up a short flight of stairs to tell their kids they can't go to the same school. They can't be together anymore. Something has changed. And I honest to God remember my father sitting on the end of the bed telling me where he was moving, and saying, it will take about a year, and I’ll bring and you and Jimmy and Val and Mom down. And it will be all right when I get a place. I’ll try to come home every weekend. It’s only 157 miles. I remember thinking that was like going to the moon.

But I remember what he did. He looked at me and he said, and I knew he believed it, Honey, everything is going to be all right.

Go back to your old neighborhoods. Go back to the people you grew up with who didn't do as well as you and ask them, do they feel confident they can look their kid in the eye and say, Honey, it’s going to be okay?

Ladies and gentlemen, that's the single, overarching obligation we have. We can do that. And don't tell me what even some Democrats tell me -- don't tell me that we have to downsize our dreams for the middle class. Don't tell me that there’s anything we can't do. (Applause.)

I don't buy it. I really don't. And I never will. I don't think the American people buy it. Just give them a chance, folks. Just give them a chance. That's what we're all about as Democrats. Give them a chance.

Thank you very much. May God protect our troops and God bless America. (Applause.)

END 5:07 P.M. PST